Wideband O2 Install

This project began with a simple idea. The idea was to remove the stock, narrow band oxygen sensor and implement a wide band solution that did not require welding an additional bung to the exhaust manafolds. To start, I had to pick a wide band sensor and controller combination that was capable of emulating the stock narrow band sensor output for the cars PCM. The LM-1 controller/sensor from Innovate Motorsports is such a sensor and controller. The LC-1 is probably also capable of performing this task but I chose the LM-1 because I could verify the sensor output with the LCD screen on the controller without any additional devices. If you are familiar with setting up a wideband sensor in either HPTuners, LS1Edit, or EFILive you can probably get by with only getting the LC-1 sensor and using your tuning package for reading the sensor output. I believe both Innovate Motorsports sensors include their software for reading output from the sensor and updating the firmware on the device. You will have to check with them regarding the LC-1 but I know for sure it is included with the LM-1.

Starting off, you need to collect a few supplies. You need a non-working (or a working one you want to destry) stock O2 sensor. You need this sensor only for the plug at the end of it as you are going to use this plug to plug one of the LM-1's outputs to the cars PCM. You could wire the LM-1 directly to the PCM but using the plug from a stock oxygen sensor insures that you will be able to return the car to stock should you need to. You also need about 20 feet of 16 gague 4 wire cable. I picked this up from Lowes at about 48 cents per foot. You also need a couple butt connectors for connecting this wire to the stock oxygen sensor wiring. Other supplies are: electrical tape, a soldering iron, fine solder, velcro, and a coat hanger (explained later).

Once you have completed this end of the wire harness, you are ready to remove the stock sensor and install the wideband. This is a task best done with a Oxygen sensor socket available from your local auto parts store. I rented one from Autozone for around $16. After you get the sensor installed, you are ready to start running wires. In the engine bay, I ran my wires behind the hard ac lines, against the wheel well so that I could avoid as much exhaust heat as possible. When you have the new emulation wire ran, hook it up to the stock location and route the large connector on the wideband back up. You are going to go through the firewall behind where your battery sits so this would be a good time to remove the battery and place it on a wood block on your garage floor.

The images to the right show first the stock oxygen sensor removed. The second image is a view from under the car with the wideband installed in the manafold. The PCM side of the stock narrow band connector can be easily seen in this image. This is where your new harness will connect. The third image is behind the battery tray (the batter tray is in the bottom of the image). There is a plastic surround just to the right of the battery that I ran my wires under. You can see in the third image that I also wrapped my grey wire in flex tube (also available at Lowes) so to keep a stock appearance under the hood. I did not wrap the widebands wires because of the large connectors on both ends of the wire that runs from the LM-1 to the sensor. This picuture also shows the wires being routed through the firewall. I left a little bit of slack in the wires in the engine bay just in case I needed to move the routing if they were butted up against something that was going to get hot.

Below you can see the grommet in the firewall that we need to go through in order to install the LM-1 controller in the interior of the car. I chose to put the LM-1 in the glove compartment because it is very close to this grommet and the controller won't fit in the cetner console (what does?). I also decided that I would mount my HPTuners EIO box in the glove compartment and leave the LM-1 permanently attached to it.

Now comes the hard part; getting through the grommet without damaging any of the other wires already ran. To accomplish this, get your coat hanger out and straighten it. Next, make a small hook in one end of it that you can attach/wrap wire to. Make a small cut in the grommet in the engine compartment to the top right of where the existing wires are ran. The cut needs to be big enough that you can get the large round connector on the sensor cable for the LM-1 through it but try to make your cut as small as possible. In the interior of the car now, remove the plastic cover in the passenger footwell. This will give you access to the interior side of the grommet. You should now be able to push your coat hanger through the grommet just to the left of where the stock wires are ran and come out the hole you cut in the engine compartment. Once you are through, tape the wires you ran in the engine compartment to the coat hanger and pull them through. You'll have a lot of excess in both the black wire that came with the LM-1 and the wire you made for the emulation of the narrow band. Once you have it all pulled through, you need to start thinking about mounting the LM-1 so you can coil up the exess and make a cut in the wire you made to hook to the PCM. I mounted the LM-1 using industrial strength velcro and just coiled up the black wire so that it would hang above the plasic you removed to access the grommet. At this point I also pulled through the serial cable that hooks from the HPTuners EIO box to the cars ODB-2 port using the coat hanger. This was easier than pulling apart the entire dash and worked verry well.

In the glove compartment there are two grommets that cover the bolts holding the compartment in place. I removed the one on the left to run most of my wires in to the glove box. Once you have pulled the sensor connector and the emulator wire through you need to cut the emulating wire so it can be wired to the LM-1. This wire hooks to the LM-1 analog output 1 (on the 1/8 inch connector cable included with the LM-1) and to the LM-1's power cable. You have to cut the power connector from the cigarette lighter plug, give yourself 5 or 6 inches to work with here. These black and red wires will hook to the black and red wires in your emulator cable if you wired them to the stock connector like I suggested above. This allows the LM-1 to turn on with your ignition and start warming up the O2 sensor for use. The low wire on your emulator cable hooks to the uninsulated wire on the LM-1 analog output cable. The high (purple/green) wire will hook to the red cable on the LM-1 (this is output 1 - the third wire on the LM-1 cable gets hooked to the input on the HPTuners EIO box). I suggest soldering and heat shrinking these connections so that you insure a good connection. Keep in mind that there is only 1 wire for low on the LM-1 output and you will need this wire to hook to the HPTuners EIO box as well as the other analog output wire. The wires you use on the HPTuners connector will vary depending on wich input you wish to use for your wideband. I used wires 1 and 5 (white and black respecively) as I was using input 1 on the EIO.